


Locked

by SketchyNebula



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Hurt Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Logan Needs A Hug, Logan has emotions, People need to stop talking over Patton, Roman and Logan need to talk, Virgil keeps his door locked and the other sides are like, what's this door here for?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-05-31 14:59:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19428352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SketchyNebula/pseuds/SketchyNebula
Summary: He always felt something about the door. It’s always been more than a door in his mind no matter how illogical Logan thought that that was.Also: read Amydiddle's 'Growing Up Parts of a Whole' series because this was greatly inspired by it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Locked, Chapter 1:**

Roman ran his hand over the door, a finger tracing the dry cracks in the ebony wood with a familiar motion. Roman sorted through memories of his previous attempts at opening the door. Every one of them ending with the same disappointment. 

There was something there.

He always felt something about the door. It’s always been more than a door in his mind no matter how illogical Logan thought that that was.

He was the one that was right this time. 

Even if he was wrong about everything else, he was right about this and he would prove it.

He grabbed at the knob, his hand forcefully twisting in an attempt to make it turn further than the lock would allow. He let out a small huff, not surprised but not really disappointed anymore either. 

His arms relaxed against the wood as he pushed his ear up, straining to listen into the room on the other side. It was just as silent as it had always been. So quiet that it was almost unnatural, maddening even. No creaking of any sort of inanimate object settling, no hum of a house.

His foot nudged a red toolbox to himself, making the metal objects inside fall and clank together. The metal sliding against the floor with a dull scraping noise. He bent down in a sweeping motion, scooping it up. 

His hand pulled the side of the ladder to slide it further away from its position leaning against the wall. Roman then pulled it upright, off of its side and nearer to the door. He braced the ladder from falling over as one of his hands balanced the toolbox from spilling. He almost dropped it as he gripped the side of the ladder to pull the legs out. Rebalancing the toolbox, he stood the ladder up with his foot. 

He climbed to the top, each step of the ladder groaning as he went. It tilted left and right as the legs teetered on the uneven planks of wood that made up the floor. He used his free hand to steady himself, trying to keep balance as he got eye level with the top of the door. 

Pushing the toolbox onto the very top of the ladder, Roman’s tongue stuck out in concentration as his eyes ran over the solid frame in front of him. 

The entire door frame was a singular piece of metal. The hinge met the frame without a crease or any sign of welding, and if this hadn't been the mindscape it would have been a complete mystery how the door was even put together. 

Behind the door was the piercing quiet, and as Roman took out a hammer all the silence was driven from the hallway as he hit it against the hinge with all his might. 

Not even making a dent. 

Roman’s hand shook a little as he clenched his hand around the hammer. He gave a long groan and tried again. He started banging at the hinges with louder and louder clanks as he tried hitting it harder and harder.

"Roman!" Roman’s back tensed as he heard the voice behind him, eyes glowering slightly before he smoothed his face out again. He sighed loudly as he turned to see Logan walking down the hallway, his thumb marking a page in the book he was carrying. "Why are you on a ladder?" Logan's exasperated voice made Roman's eyes roll and he turned back to the door in order to hammer at the hinge again.

It’s not like Logan’s disappointment was a new thing to Roman. 

And it’s not like that hurt him anymore.

"Well." He began with a deep inhale, "I am trying to get into this room." He stated, to his credit, only slightly mockingly. Logan’s shoulders fell a little and he opened his mouth only to be stopped by the sound of footsteps.

"What’s going on?" Patton asked as he walked out of the kitchen door, turning to look at the both of them as he dusted his hands, flour dispersing into a cloud in the air.

"As I was literally just saying-"

"Roman was the cause of-,"

They both started at the same time and Patton helplessly opened and closed his mouth, his eyes fluttering from one to the other with a tight-lipped smile.

Roman’s shoulders were raised slightly, his eyes looking up with exasperation and Logan’s eyes scanned Roman up and down, a quirked eyebrow was the only indication of emotion on Logan’s face as he clutched his book firmly between the pages.

"Roman you need to stop these attempts at opening the door." Logan stared into him as he stated that, a hand gesturing to him and the door with a wave. Roman gritted his teeth and Patton bit his lip, barely getting out a squeaking sound as the other two plowed on.

"Why?" Roman asked voice hard, as his knuckles turned white gripping the side of the ladder. He tilted dangerously as his weight shifted. "There's obviously something behind it-," He started.

"But Thomas doesn’t require anything beyond that door yet. If he did then the door would have open of its own accord already." Logan began and Roman opened his mouth to quickly interject.

"What if-,"

"Roman," Logan said his name, speaking over the top of him again. Logan’s voice was tired and Roman slammed the hammer back into the toolbox, rocking the ladder.

"Careful kiddo-," Patton instantly said.

"Don't call me that, I'm not a kid!" he shouted and Patton flinched back, eyes still nervously looking the ladder up and down. "You don't know what's behind the door!" Roman began, turning back to Logan and pointing. 

Logan's eyebrows scrunched up his lips twitching into a frown but before he could say anything Roman continued, "You said it was going to open with puberty and it hasn't so-,"

"The mindscape is aware of what it is supposed to do with its own functions." Logan interrupted, "When the puberty expansion did happen it happened of its own accord, all we need to do is our functions and the rest will-,"

"Logan!-," Roman shouted leaning forward to the point the ladder tilted. 

Logan’s lips thinned before parting once more only for Patton to intervene "C'mon now, let's not fight, can you get down from there kid- uh I mean, Roman?-," Patton said, voice getting a little higher with worry as he grabbed at the base of the ladder to hold it still. 

Roman glanced at Patton for a moment, his hand hovering over the toolbox before he grabbed it and stomped down the ladder. He made eye contact with Logan who had the same expression painted on his face. 

Patton smiled helplessly at the both of them. 

"How about you help me decorate the cookies I'm making Roman? You usually like doing that?" Patton suggested weakly gesturing to the kitchen, Logan sighed through his nose and Roman whipped around to say something only to see Logan's back as he steadily retreated down the hall, his book clutched in his hand. 

The sound of Logan's door clicking shut had Roman letting out a sigh of irritation. 

"He thinks he’s always right!" Roman said throwing his hands up and Patton swallowed as Roman turned back to him, 

"Oh well- I don’t- how about you put away the ladder and we just go decorate those cookies?" Patton glanced back down the hall, where Logan disappeared to before turning back to Roman. 

Roman, looked back at the door. The metal not even scratched, he gave his tired hands a once over before he grumbled. Putting the toolbox on the ground, he picked the ladder up. Folding and tucking it under his arm, Roman reached back down for the toolbox.

Patton flinched a little as Roman barely missed scraping the walls with the ladder as he turned.

"Be care-," Roman had already turned down the hallway and Patton sighed crossing his arms, his shoulders slumping eyes flickering over empty air. 

Patton turned back to the door. his eyes tracing and retracing over the cracks in the wood, dark silver hinges and a worn out doorknob made from the same metal. He walked over, standing where the ladder once stood as he looked down the hall the other two had left down. 

He listened in for footsteps, eyes probing around at noises before he glanced back at the door. Gently reaching out, he gripped the doorknob with a soft hold, twisting slowly only to be stopped by the lock. 

He sighed through his nose, placing a hand against the center of the door, he leaned forward his forehead brushing the wood as he closed his eyes. 

He stood there for a moment, eyes flickering behind his eyelids before he lifted his head away from the door.

"I wish I knew." He mumbled to himself, cutting through the silence to reply to his own thoughts before he pulled away. 

He turned heading into the kitchen, giving the door one last look over his shoulder before he was grabbing the dough he was working on out of the refrigerator. 

Flouring the island, again, he pulled out a rolling pin just as Roman walked into the kitchen, Patton beamed gesturing to the sink. 

"Wash up and then we can get to work!" 

Roman grunted, but complied, his face still a little tense. 

Meanwhile, while Logan's nose was firmly in his book, he couldn't focus on it. He let his hands drop down to his lap, clutching at the edges of the hard-cover. 

His forehead scrunched up, and he slotted a bookmark into the pages before he reached up to rub the creases out of his forehead. 

The door would open when it was time for it to open, heck the door could contain something that Thomas would unlock he was an old man for all they knew. 

Logan had watched Patton attempt to open the door. He saw how Patton, who could coach Thomas through soothing his friends and made Roman open up when he couldn't get him to budge, couldn't get the knob to move even a centimeter. 

They tried back before Roman even materialized and nothing’s changed. Roman was wasting his time. The side had a lot more he could be doing.

The doors not going to open and they just had to wait for that to happen on its own.

Logan saw Roman’s outraged face flash in his head and he threw the book down on his desk, an elbow on the arm of the couch and hand propping up his head. 

Why couldn't he focus?

**Locked**

Roman yawned, his head barely staying up as he leaned heavily into his palm. He jerked his head up just as it almost slid off his hand, eyelids drooping. 

He scanned through tonight’s litany of dreams, looking over the screen for good ideas or worthy fantasy's for later, but it seemed to just be the same gobbledygook that the subconscious shot out most nights. 

Roman grimaced as he looked at the clock on the side of the console. 1 am. 

Roman groaned a little, bouncing his leg. 

What if Roman went to bed and he misses a really cool dream and Thomas forgets it in the morning. He frowns.

He had to get sleep. If he didn't then he would barely be functional tomorrow for Thomas and Thomas needs him in tip-top shape for drama class. 

What if he fell asleep during drama class and Thomas-,

There was the soft sound of a door opening and closing. 

Roman whipped around to where the noise came from. He stood, walking over and peering into the hallway that leads to the console room. 

"...hello?" He asked to the open air. Moving his body out from behind the doorway, he walked down the hallway as his eyes attempted to adjust to looking through the darkness of the hall. 

Roman turned as the door, the usually locked door, was moving to shut.

"W-wait!," The doorknob shook a little and he grabbed onto it yanking and twisting, but it was quickly snapped shut and locked again.

"No- No! Wait- What was!" 

The light flicked on, "Roman?" Roman turned to see Patton standing behind him eyes tired, looking disheveled as if he had just rolled out of bed and ran out here. "What's going on, are you okay-,"

Logan walked down the hallway, glasses precariously perched on his nose. 

"I heard shouting." he stated and Roman basically jumped up and down.

"The door!," Roman pointed, arms energetically waving around, "It was open!" he shouted to Logan his heart soaring in excitement, “I was in the control room and then there was this sound and I followed it!” Roman said rushing through his sentence. Patton moved over to the door crouching to be eye level with the knob, “It was open but then-,” Patton tried to twist the knob to no avail, "It closed again" Roman said as Patton made eye contact with Logan, "-but I heard a noise before it swung shut again-,"

"How much sleep are you getting?" Logan asked suddenly and Roman's stomach fell, something catching in his throat as he turned to Logan, eyes wide.

"It opened," Roman stated, eyes going dark as he looked at the other.

Logan gestured to the door, "Well those kinds of things, moving shadows, noises, they are all quite common hallucinations when one is sleep deprived-," 

"I'm not hallucinating-," Roman shot back at Logan and Patton stood up suddenly. 

"Well it looks like its shut now-," He said hands up in a placating manner. "It's 1 am, i think we should all get some sleep. We're all just tired and-," 

Logan turned quickly, heading to his room and Roman glared at his back as he went. 

"It's okay-," 

"It's not okay. He doesn't believe me." Roman said, walking down the hall and Patton sighed, eyes lowered as he followed closely, he flicked the light off, before heading to his own room in the mindscape.

**Locked**

Virgil’s hands shook. He kept stretching his hearing out trying to see if anyone was in the room.

His body had frozen in fear when he had left his little safe haven to see someone sitting at the console. They were all usually asleep by at least midnight, what if they-

He shook his head, trying to push the thought away. He had only just started breathing right, he can’t work himself up again. His arms were still buzzing from when he had to fight to close the door, the other pulling on it. 

A heavy feeling settled in Virgil’s stomach as he slumped down. His eyes flickering over the doorknob in front of him, before slowly, hesitantly, he turned slightly to look over his shoulder at the other door behind him. 

It was still locked, between him and… anyway, the other door should stay shut.

It’s shut.

It should stay shut.

Should.

He breathed slowly. Methodically he began counting out his breaths as he turned back to the door right in front of him. His hand slowly rose as he twisted the lock.

Danger buzzed under his skin again, a feeling that made him nauseous and agitated.

When wasn’t he nauseous and agitated again?

Oh, right, he was always nauseous and agitated.

Great.

He slowly cracked the door open. The quiet darkness of his basement pushing into the hallway with him as he peeked his head out to peer around the area.

Everything was silent again. 

He barely let out a relieved breath as he moved, crouching down into almost a crawl as he slunk to the large console in the adjoined room. 

After basically bumping into it, he sat cross-legged on the floor in front of it. His eyes probed the bottom of the console for his little meter. 

It was in the orange and tapping on it didn’t seem to help this time, so that meant a little bit of manual work. He groaned quietly as he stood up, his limbs unfolding with a protest before he began moving to the ‘maintenance closet’ on his left.

His eyes darted around the room. 

No more yelling, no footsteps. Quiet. 

Please stay quiet.

Thankfully his little bucket that held all of his tools was still safely tucked away in the corner of the closet. Shielded from view underneath an unassuming blanket. Not that he thought that the mindscape would actually let them disappear even if the others did try to throw them out or something, but- huh.

Virgil’s heart skipped a beat as he paused to look over his shoulder again only to see no one there. 

No one else was there, but he was able to do that?… Was Logan here earlier?

Taking his own thought process as a yes, he carefully moved. His eyes darted around every now and again as he pulled the bucket out of the closet. He made his way back to the console, laying down on the floor in front of it, so he could slowly shimmy his body to slide forward. He carefully poked his head under the machine to get at his buttons and parts. 

Popping open the bottom was as easy as unscrewing four screws and soon he was looking at all the live wires. He grimaced, mind filling with all the times that this didn’t work and he just ended up getting himself shocked. 

He pulled his hoodie sleeve over his hand, gripping the wire that seemed to be sparking the most and lightly touched it to the top of the console. Suddenly the entire console was live, out of sleep mode and beeping. Virgil bit his lip as he pulled himself up to peer over the edge of the console in order to see Thomas pulling himself out of bed, and groaning. Thomas stared at a wall for a moment before suddenly getting his backpack and grabbing the unfinished homework packet that was due tomorrow- er today now. 

Right?

Virgil started screwing the bottom panel back in, half hoping that maybe one of the voices in his room would stop screaming at him now that Thomas was dealing with one of them.

The sound of doors quickly opening and closing made Virgil’s heart rate spike. He froze, his mind acting in a flurry of panic as he tossed his bucket into the maintenance closet, the blanket was thrown haphazardly over it.

He turned to dart back to the basement door. Legs pumping to make it before anyone entered the hall to the console. He violently turned the lock as the door shut behind himself, hands shaking and legs buckling as soon as he was on the familiar stair steps.

His ears slowly stopped ringing and the chatter from familiar voices slowly started registering in his ears. 

“I don’t think that Thomas was having a nightmare when we were down here earlier-,”

“The door opened do you think that-,”

“Isn’t that the packet that I repeatedly attempted motivating him to do? What suddenly inspired him to-,”

“-He woke up just to do that?! I thought he was going to do it on the bus,”

“Well as much as I'm happy our kiddo is taking homework seriously?, it is- 1 am…” 

Virgil bit his lip, ear pressed to the wood of the door. 

“Guys it can’t be a coincidence-,”

“Roman there is a stronger likely hood that it is a coincidence, Thomas has been doing these types of actions a lot now that he is developing.”

“Yes,” a cheerful voice, Virgil learned over time belonged to Patton, said wavering a little, “A lot has changed ever since the puberty thing happened.” Patton posed and another made a noise of agreement.

“Yes- teenagers are developing the ability to plan and coordinate things by themselves, Thomas is also further developing his social ability to understand and predict other people's views. That alone increases self-consciousness. ” Logan said, his voice steady throughout the entire explanation. 

“Um- wait so- are we are all doing that? Because I don’t care about that at all,” The louder voice, Roman, said his voice contesting. His volume made Virgil wince pulling his ear from the door slightly. 

Virgil’s heart rate picked up.

Self-consciousness? 

Was that… him now?

“Well, it’s more likely not a function of ourselves in literal terms. There is no ‘side’ for hunger or sleep.” Logan stated a little sternly.

“Yeah but when Thomas gets a craving Patton does too” Roman challenged 

“The heart wants what it wants,” Patton giggled.

“And if Thomas doesn’t get enough sleep you get… loopy…” Logan grunted at the phrasing.

“That's just our reactions to Thomas’s basic functions. Self-consciousness isn’t logical, moral or creative- though if Thomas is self-conscious about being perceived as moral, logical or creative I guess that would be somewhat in our territory-“ Roman sighed dramatically in boredom and Logan retracted back to the point, his voice flat. “Fear, anxiety, self-consciousness it is all an instinct based primal thing-,”

Virgil paused frowning.

Fear, self-consciousness… anxiety?

“And cravings are moral?” Patton laughed a little,

“Well,” Logan began defensively, his voice a little hard. “I mean not in that sense, but as you said you represent Thomas’s ‘Heart’ so Morals, empathy, emotions… cravings could be designated as an emotional-,” Roman snorted, “...response.”

“okay so emotions,” Roman began, “shouldn’t Patton have fear or whatever then-,”

Virgil willed Logan to backtrack, he needed to know what Logan was saying before. It was something about him, even if he didn’t exactly know who he was these days...

“Look, It’s 1 am. Let's just get Thomas back into bed okay,” Logan said, his voice suddenly even.

Virgil’s heart rate sped up, biting his lip. Thomas going back to bed now? Before the packet was finished?

“A primal based- what?” Virgil whispered to himself, 

“Um, guys?” Virgil’s brain tuned back into the conversation, his heart rate spiking. 

Did they hear that? Did they-,

“Why are, um, none of my buttons working-,” Patton said with a nervous laugh. 

“It’s… odd, we’re all locked out?” Logan said and Virgil felt his stomach drop. What did he do? Was that him, did he do something- DID HE BREAK SOMETHING?

Virgil swallowed hard, buzzing under his skin making him rush down the rest of the stairs, moving back to his room, locking the door behind him. 

The yelling surrounded him again. 

‘Thomas was going to make a fool of himself-,’

‘He has to present next week and he hasn’t even-,’

‘What if Thomas-,’

‘What happens when-,’

Virgil closed his hands over his ears, wrapping himself into a tight ball on his bed. He grabbed his headphones body vibrating and head aching. 

He tried to breathe through it. 

In.

Out.

...in

out...

**Locked**

Roman tapped one of his buttons again, side-eyeing Logan whose buttons would flash every now and again while Patton and Roman’s had almost completely gone dark. Logan was looking at the console with a raised eyebrow. 

“Why can’t we do anything, Thomas needs to go back to sleep-,” Patton said, his voice a little higher than normal. He caught Logan’s eye and Logan opened and closed his mouth once.

“I-, I’m sure it’s just the, uh-”

“Lost for words?” Roman asked haughtily and Logan glared at the other, sighing through his nose. 

“Look Thomas is almost done with that packet now anyway so- I don’t know why he didn’t care when I told him to do it and yet he does now but-, he’ll probably be going back to sleep any minute.”

He turned back to Patton, “I’ll watch over things to make sure everything re-engages but you two should go to bed.”

“Are you sure?” Patton asked as Roman threw a peace sign over his shoulder walking down the hall. 

“Yes, It’ll be fine.” 

Patton gave Logan a long look before turning out of the console room, throwing glances over his shoulder to see Logan standing alone, fingers still ghosting over the few buttons that were working on the console.

Logan slumped a little as he finally heard Roman’s bedroom door shut. At least he wasn’t getting in any shouting matches with him lately. 

Little victories. 

Logan turned back to where Thomas was working, he ran his hand over a couple of the functions of his side of the board. 

Most of his controls were inaccessible to him. 

He couldn’t do a lot but as he pushed a flickering button once or twice he noticed he could contribute to the process of finishing the packet. He glanced up to the monitor that showed what Thomas was seeing. Peering at the packet Thomas was given, he could finally work through the thing that had been on his agenda for the last week.

He blew a breath out of his nose as his eyes scanned over the problems on the pages. A week's worth of homework. At least they weren’t doing it on the bus. Logan had no idea how he was going to pull that off but Roman-, anyway.

Slowly but surely they had most of the information and the packet was slowly filled out. Work and all shown, with only the barest of help from Google, which Patton would probably be as happy with as him.

3 am. 

Two hours was not an ideal amount of time for Logan to be out of direct control, but he could appeal whatever decision was made now that Thomas seemed calm…

But the packet was almost half done and Thomas wasn’t going to do it when Logan told him to do it, so…

Maybe letting Thomas finish this one packet this early in the morning would be fine.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heart felt great which meant that Thomas felt great too, and he should! because it was his first, ever, day of school!

**Locked, Chapter 2:**

Heart was so happy! Skipping through the halls, and humming as he entered the main room. He jumped up standing on the edge of his chair by the screen.

There he could see Thomas packing together his stuff. Putting his folder and new pencil case in his back-pack and zipping it up.

Heart felt great which meant that Thomas felt great too, and he should! because it was his first, ever, day of school!

Smart said he was ‘excited’, and Heart didn’t know what that word meant but he saw how Smart was glued to the screen in the main room, so Heart figured they both felt the same thing even if they didn’t use the same words for it.

Smart says they’re going to learn things, and Heart thought learning was cool but he was more happy about meeting the other kids in the school.

Thomas was going to make so many friends, and they were going to come over to his house like his babysitter Robert did, but they were going to be Thomas’s age and like playing with his batman toys instead of talking on the phone.

On the screen, Thomas looked through his closet and picked out his clothes. All by himself! Heart basically jumped up and down as Thomas pulled out his favourite shirt.

Oh, Heart was so ‘excited’! He was excited and any other good word for happy! 

After eating breakfast, and a drive that seemed like the longest drive Thomas had ever been through, they finally got to school. 

The building was big and red and both Heart and Thomas had openly stared at the fenced playground with the swing set in the middle.

Thomas’s mother walked him inside, and after talking with the lady at the front office she also started to walk him down the hallway. 

He was looking around at all the new surroundings as they walked by, peaking into classrooms and up staircases. Smart had craned to see what the teachers were writing on their boards, squinting his eyes to see. Thomas was so distracted he almost ran right into his mom when she stopped walking. 

When Thomas walked in his new classroom, the teacher, Mrs. Davis, introduced herself. Heart heard Smart whisper her name to himself a couple of times to remember it.

“Go on and play with the other kids in the room while your mother and I talk okay sweetheart.” Mrs. Davis said and his mom gave him a kiss goodbye. 

There were a lot of kids all playing with different toys and talking. Thomas paused, looking around and Heart jumped up to help as Thomas stood there unsure. 

Heart’s eyes stuck on a couple of kids playing with legos, he almost fell out of his chair as he slammed on one of the buttons in front of him. Thomas raced forward, stopping just in front of the other two kids.

“Hi, my name’s Thomas! Can I play with you!” Thomas said his speedy introduction and the other boy on the floor smiled.

“Thomas, like the train? That’s cool, my name’s Mikey.” Mikey pushed a pile of legos closer to Thomas. The girl sitting next to Mikey waved at Thomas.

Heart was smiling so hard he thought his cheeks might break.

“Me and Jess were gonna make the Ninja Turtles hide-out wanna help?” Mikey said, gesturing to a little building with some tables and stairs.

Heart jumped out of his seat, Thomas loved Ninja Turtles! Thomas said as much as he sat next to the other boy, and Mikey started asking him questions about what Ninja Turtle he liked best.

Heart was squealing, and spinning around in his chair.

A friend! 

Thomas just made a friend! On his first day! Or maybe even two friends if Jess and him get along as well. He’s so proud of Thomas and he’s so proud of himself!

Heart turned to see Smart glance over to him, a small smile on his face as he watched Heart bounce in his seat.

“We already made a friend Smart!” Heart said, beaming at the other side and Smart nodded his head. 

“We did.” He said, and Heart turned back to the screen to see Jess and Thomas talking as well. Thomas made Jess laugh and Heart squealed again.

“We made  _ two  _ friends Smart! Two of them!” Smart shook his head, a smile still on his face, before leaning forward and pushing a button. 

Thomas slotted a few legos together in a square, before slotting together a few pieces to make a hole that a flat piece could rest in for the manhole cover.

“Oh, that’s really smart!” Jess said to Thomas and Smart nodded, swinging his legs a little from his place on his chair. 

“Yes, it was.” He stated and Heart clapped his hands together as he turned from Smart to the screen to Smart again. 

Jess’s smile disappeared and she glared over Thomas’s shoulder, making both Smart and Heart stop and stare at the screen.

Heart’s hands had frozen together, fingertips hovering as Thomas turned to see another boy approaching behind him. The boy shouldered Thomas out of his way as he grabbed a fist-full of the lego pieces Mikey had laid out on the floor.

Heart’s eyes were wide and glancing around the screen. 

“Go away Andrew!” Mikey yelled at the other boy.

“No, you go away!”

Heart surged forward pressing buttons, and Smart bit his lip staring at the board in front of them.

“He can play with us-,” Thomas started but Mikey leaned in whispering.

“No Thomas, Andrew lives on my street and he’s mean because his dad’s running for sheriff.” Mikey said and Heart frowned. Why would that make someone be mean?

Andrew stormed between them pushing Mikey back as he went. Mikey stood up and Thomas grabbed his arm. 

Heart frowned his hands firmly on his part of the board. He turned to see Smart looking nervously at the screen.

Smart’s hands hovered over the buttons in front of them. He bit his lip before slowly his eyes looked over to Heart. 

“Oh uh.” Smart said, eyes immediately connecting with the board in front of himself again. Before he slowly pressed a button.

“there’s two Lego boxes, we’re not even using those one’s why don’t you play with them?” Andrew huffed before tearing apart one of the walls of the building they were making.

Heart slouched in his seat, Smart’s eyes wide and mouth tight as he watched Mikey yell at the other boy only to be pushed down again.

Mikey sniffed and Heart froze, feeling something bad rise up in his chest. 

He looked to Smart but Smart’s hand only hovered over the board, forehead scrunched up. Heart’s eyes shot to the screen again, watching as tears welled up in Mikey’s eyes. 

Heart’s hands twitched before he just pressed another button, Thomas grabbed Mikey’s arm and helped the other to stand up. Mikey gave him a watery smile in thanks and Jess walked over, grabbing both of their hands.

“C’mon guys,” Jess said leaning in and speaking quietly, and Thomas looked at her as she started leading them away. “Let’s draw at my desk, I have new glitter crayons.”

Smart swallowed, and Heart felt his hands nervously twitch in his lap but he didn’t take his eyes off the screen.

“I- uh.” Smart started, “We can’t be friends with everyone.” He stated, and Heart turned to see Smart looking at him, eyes a little wide. Heart smiled to the best of his ability, clearing his throat.

“Well! We still made two new friends and we helped Mikey!” Heart said, trying to stay happy.

If he’s happy, Thomas is happy because he  _ is  _ Thomas’s happy.

Jess had gotten out her pink paper, and all of them were at her desk. Thomas’s tongue stuck out as he looked at the crayon selection in front of himself. Jess was in the middle of drawing some kind of cartoon character and Mikey was drawing an octopus space monster. Heart quickly pressed a button and soon Thomas was drawing a puppy.

Smart chimed in, pressing another button, and Thomas was colouring the puppy in brown.

“Aw I wanted purple.” Heart said and Smart looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“What’s his name,” Mikey asked and Thomas smiled.

“Scooby!”

“I love that show!” Jess chimed in. 

Heart beamed and looked over to Smart who seemed to have finally relaxed again.

**Locked**

Smart was basically glued to the screen as the teacher went through addition, but Heart couldn’t help himself from looking over at Mikey who sat a row over and in front of Thomas. Jess said she wanted to show Thomas and Mikey something cool at recess!

So when recess did finally come, Hearts hand slammed on the buttons before Smart could even reach for them.

“I wanted to talk to the teacher,” Smart frowned at him and Heart blushed. 

“I’m sorry.” Heart said, “But Mikey and Jess-,”

“This way!” Jess said and Thomas followed behind Mikey to the backpacks. Jess unzipped one of her back-pack pockets pulling out a super-ball.

“Woah! Is that the one that gets super high?” Mikey asked and Jess smiled.

“Yup!” She said handing it to Mikey and Mikey bounced it once to Thomas who caught it. “It could go higher than the middle-schooler basketball hoops outside, wanna see it?”

“Yeah!” Mikey said, holding his hands up so that Thomas could throw the ball back to him. 

Thomas did, only for Mikey’s hands to miss it mid-air.

The ball bounced off the side of the teacher's desk, rocking it and knocking a lamp over, shattering the lightbulb.

Heart and Smart were both sitting their eyes wide. There was laughter coming from behind Thomas and Thomas turned around to see Andrew standing there.

“I’m telling and you’re gonna be in so much trouble!” Andrew said, and Heart’s eyes stung. 

Thomas was going to get in trouble on his first day of school!

Mrs. Davis walked back in the room and suddenly the entire button board lit up yellow. Heart and Smart both jumped as Thomas surged forward before Andrew could even open his mouth.

“Andrew broke your lamp!” Mrs. Davis looked startled, eyes looking from Thomas over to the broken light bulb and from that to Andrew.

Heart’s mouth hung open as Thomas lied to his teacher.

“Wh- No I didn’t” Andrew yelled, “Thomas broke your lamp,” He pointed to the other and Mrs. Davis crouched down to look at them.

“Well, this seems to be quite the situation here? Jessica, Michael, did you see anything.” Jess looked at Thomas before looking back at the teacher and pointing at Andrew. 

“He’s lying.”

Heart gasped, eyes wide. 

“No! That’s not okay though! That’s not what’s good!” Heart shouted, banging his fist on the board and standing up. The yellow buttons weren’t working, and Smart glanced from Heart to the board, again and again, hand hovering.

“Do something Smart!” Heart yelled but Smart’s eyes only scanned over the board again and again.

“I can only help  _ with _ the lying!” Smart shouted back at him and Heart roughly scrubbed away tears off his face with the back of his hand.

“Well,” Mrs. Davis said looking back to Andrew. “Andrew what do you have to say?”

“I’m- we’re not,” Heart choked out, before turning and slamming down all the buttons.

“I- No wait!” Thomas said, getting the attention of the teacher again. “I- I broke the lamp…” Heart sagged in relief, hands still shaking as he relaxed, looking at the screen. “I was just mad at Andrew for making Mikey upset and didn’t want to get in trouble.” 

The teacher's eyes widened. “Well.” She began. “Thank you Thomas, for telling the truth. I think spending recess inside today will be enough of a punishment.” Thomas slumped a little and Heart sagged in his seat. He really wanted to play with Jess’s ball, “Now, what happened to make Mikey upset?” 

Heart slowly smiled again as he watched the situation play out. 

This was right! 

Smart made a noise in his throat wildly gesturing for Heart to look down at the glow coming from the board. The board was lit up again, but instead of the board’s normal white colour or the new yellow one, the side of the board Heart was sitting by started glowing a pale blue. 

“Wh-what?” 

He watched as the yellow colour was chased out of the board, being replaced with a blue colour.

“Now Andrew, you know that pushing is wrong. I’m going to have to tell your dad about this when he comes to pick you up-,”

“No! He’s gonna be so mad at me!” Andrew was on the edge of tears and Heart smiled, leaning forward and pressing one of the blue buttons.

“It’s okay! If he helps us build a new Ninja Turtle hide-out we can forgive him!” Thomas looked behind himself to Mikey and Jess. Jess shrugged at Mikey who glanced at Andrew before slowly nodding.

Mrs. Davis smiled at them, before turning back to Andrew, “Well, if you think we can all play nice for the rest of the day, but if this happens again I’m going to be making some calls home okay?”    
Andrew and Thomas nodded their heads, Andrew sniffing quietly. 

Thomas grabbed Andrew’s hand and led them all back to the Lego’s.

Heart turned excitedly to Smart, “Look, look, look!” Heart pointed back to the side of the board that was coloured light blue.

Smart moved his head down level with the board. His eyes squinting as his hand reached out to press at the buttons there only for nothing to happen.

“I think that only you can use this part of the board now,” Smart said head shooting back up to look at Heart.

Heart squealed jumping up and down only to fall suddenly as a loud noise crawled through the halls shaking the room, creaking and thumping. 

Heart and Smart froze, looking at each other before scrambling up. They ran into the hallway, freezing as one of the walls warped. They watched with wide eyes as it slowly turned black and started twisting into itself.

Heart grabbed Smarts arm, tightly hugging it and covering his ears as they both watched the wall cave in.

When silence finally settled again and Heart slowly pulled his hands away from his ears a black wooden door was settled into the wall.

Heart tilted his head, looking from Smart to the door before slowly reaching out to the doorknob. Smart quickly grabbed his wrist. “We don’t know what that is.” He stated, pulling Heart back.

Heart watched as Smart’s eyes traced the door, with a scrunched up forehead. Before he turned back to the main room, pulling Heart behind him.

“Well, nothing happened to Thomas.” Smart said, looking at the screen before turning back to look at Heart, “I guess we’re okay unless something else happens, but don’t touch it. We don’t know what it is.” 

Heart watched Smart walk back over to his chair, looking up, he saw Thomas showing Andrew how to make a hinge with legos.

Heart smiled at Thomas before slowly turning back to see the new door again.

Heart frowned.

The rest of the day came and went and when he got home, Thomas happily showed some of the drawings he did to his mom. Right now though, Smart was glued to the screen as Thomas did his homework, slowly tracing the letters on the paper in front of him.

Heart kept glancing over his shoulder at the new door. 

He watched Smart press a few more buttons, eyes following everything carefully. Slowly, while looking back at Smart, Heart pushed off of his chair.

He landed on the floor quietly, before walking over to the threshold of the main room, peering into the hallway again.

Heart tilted his head at the large shape, a new part of the house.

A new part of the house that felt.

Felt?

The way it felt, felt important. 

**Locked**

Morality. 

A new word, and possibly a new name.

“That’s me.” Morality said to himself and Logic paused turning away from the dark blue on his side of the board and toward Morality. 

“Yes,” Logic said, tilting his head to read the definition of the word on the paper. “That does fit your job well. Are you sure?” 

Morality nodded his head as Thomas continued down to the next word on his spelling homework. 

Thomas was almost done with second grade, and Morality was just so proud to see him growing up. Logic was beyond happy that Thomas had graduated to ‘actual books’ even if they are magic treehouse books.

Mr. Berkley’s voice pulled Thomas away from his spelling work as he got the classes attention. “For the last few weeks of this year, I thought that we could try something fun,” Morality perked up at that, he loved to do fun things. “I want all of you to try writing what your own story-book adventure would be, like the ones we started reading this last unit, and when you’re all done we can have a book made with all of the stories and drawings in it, now I want you too-,”

Morality watched as the other kids excitedly started talking about their ideas. He smiled, glancing around the room to see Andrew and Mikey talking rapid-fire about this one book series they both loved called Flat Stanley.

As Logic leaned in to see the requirements that were being written up on the board, Thomas had already jumped with a piece of paper and was already writing down ideas. 

Morality laughed as Logic rolled his eyes, letting his hands slip off his dark blue section of the button board and cross over his chest.

The carefree air was broken by the sound of a door slamming, making both Logic and Morality jump out of their skin.

Morality was out of his seat in an instant, bolting to the hallway only to stop in front of the, sadly, undisturbed black door. 

“Heart- Morality!” Logic yelled from the main hub, Morality’s heart rate spiked again and he was running back into the room only too see green.

The entire board lit up with green and Morality’s eyes widened.

Morality paled as he saw what Thomas had written down on his paper.

“Erm-,” Logic began, “That is an- interesting one?” Logic said and Morality’s jaw fell. “He’s been doing that a lot more lately-,” Logic finished, and Morality frowned.

“Yeah not like we haven’t been trying to get him to stop-,” Morality said voice cracking a little at the end.

“Uh- Hi!” A voice behind them made them both whip around to see another side, decked in red standing there. 

Morality was thrown for a loop as he saw the other staring at them with bright eyes. 

Logic tilted his head shoulders tense as he pointed at the other, “Who are-,”

“Ew!” Suddenly the other side yelled glaring at the screen in front of him. “That’s a bad idea!” 

Morality couldn’t help but agree with him. The other pushed past the two of them, and they didn’t stop him from setting his hands on the board as he pushed himself up to look at the other ideas on the screen. 

Red spread out from around from where the other’s hands touched the board.

“No!” The other shouted out before turning his head, looking back and forth from Logic to Morality. “Here’s what he should do, he should write about a knight! And the knight has to save a prince from these bandits-,”

“I think those stories usually go ‘knight saves the princess-’,” Logic began but Morality started talking over him.

“I think It’s a great idea! Better than that other one,” Morality said complementing the new side and looking at Logic in a way to tell the other to ‘let him do what he’s going to if it meant getting that thought away from Thomas’s head.’ 

Morality pressed one of his buttons, and the green was chased away as red and light blue overtook the board. 

Thomas scribbled out the other idea with a blush before circling the new idea supplied by the red side who squealed at seeing Thomas take his idea enthusiastically. 

“Now.” Morality began with a sigh, his heart rate slowing now that Thomas wasn’t thinking- anyway. 

“My name is Morality, and that is Logic. What do you think you are?” 

The red one looked at them blankly before smiling and jumping up and down, “A prince! I’m the prince!”

Logic’s eyes narrowed in confusion and he opened his mouth, “That isn’t-,”

“Okay!” Morality cooed with a smile, watching the other get so excited. “For now then- You are the Prince, now why don’t you show us where it is you came from.” 

“This way, This way!” Prince yelled running down the hallway. Morality laughed, and Logic gave Morality a look before jerking his head behind them, gesturing to the board, before following after Prince.

Morality turned to see a red section of the board newly blinking next to his. 

He smiled, turning only to freeze as a bright green glow quickly flashed under the black of the hallway door. 

Morality felt something in his stomach sink.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Logan’s eyes dragged over to see Roman glaring at him with his hand still hovering over the console.

**Locked, Chapter 3:**

Logan dragged his hands down his face, eyes burning with lack of sleep. He looked over the edge of his glasses to stare at the monitor as he leaned back in his chair.

Thomas turned in the homework packet during his first-period class. He looked worse for wear after having quite literally rolled out of bed. He barely scraped up enough energy to pick some clothing off the floor of his closet, tugging on whatever before slinging his back-pack over his shoulder.

Logan was… regretful, about his decision. 

Well, he had made the best possible decision considering the circumstance. There was no way that Roman’s idea was going to work since it took about two hours to finish the packet that morning and Thomas’s bus ride was only thirty minutes.

However, the consequential outcome wasn’t the most ideal.

Thomas had to stay up till 4 am, which happened to be two hours before he needed to be up and waiting for the bus, and now Logan could only watch as Thomas ran his day on less than adequate sleep-levels. 

Thomas had knocked into two people in the halls while stumbling, entered the wrong classroom for a second time that day, and at some point this period, he started falling asleep. 

Logan had to bite back a sigh as his buttons locked him out again.

Lack of sleep inhibiting logic. 

Of course.

Not that Thomas listens to him on the perfect amount of sleep either. 

Logan checked the time to see that it was almost the end of the class period. There wasn’t much that could be done about the situation anymore.

After this, Thomas’s last class of the day was Drama. At which point Logan would wake up Roman and Patton. 

It happens to be their favourite course out of all the ones that Thomas picked. 

The muddied, and distant voice of Thomas’s teacher went through the speakers of the console room and Logan rolled his chair a little closer to one, leaning in. 

“Now, bring your poster boards in on Monday! You have all weekend to finish this project-,” Logan exhaled through his nose, eyes slitting a little. Thomas had his eyes closed but for right now, auditory was still up.

Another project.

Another thing to schedule and Thomas isn’t even up.

Logan can’t motivate him to do something he’s unaware of.

He gently presses what buttons are up and running only for them to flicker out slowly too. Logan’s shoulders slumped, watching as the console went dark, and everything shut down.

“Thomas!” 

Suddenly it lit back up all at once as Thomas startled.

Logan slumped in his seat as Thomas’s history teacher looked down at him, arms crossed and eyebrow raised.

“Am I boring you, Mr. Sanders?” 

Logan bit his cheek, rolling his chair back. 

“Patton!” He called out, and the other side popped into the room with Roman in tow. 

“Huh! What’s happening-,” Roman said, hair tousled, still in his pajamas. 

“Thomas’s teacher is-,” Logan began but Patton had already run up to his side of the console. He started pressing buttons and Thomas slowly started to speak.

“No-,” Thomas said. “I just didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night.” Roman dragged his feet to get to his side of the console but before he could press a button, Logan pressed a series of his own. “I’ll stand in the back? That way it’s easier not to fall asleep?” 

The teacher’s eyes softened at the other’s words and nodded. “That sounds fine Mr. Sanders just pay attention, I’m giving instructions for this weekends project.” 

Thomas perked up at that and Logan could only be glad that he was in the know for at least that much.

Logan’s eyes dragged over to see Roman glaring at him with his hand still hovering over the console. 

“You didn’t wake us up to help Thomas during school?” Patton asked, his voice hesitant and Logan stood up, taking his glasses off momentarily to rub at his eyes. 

“I thought it best to allow you two to rest further as Thomas’s energy-,” 

“Oh, can it Nerdy McFly,” 

“Roman!” Patton shouted indignantly and Roman plowed on.

“What! He obviously wanted to be ‘in complete control’. It’s not like he-,” Logan’s lips pressed together at the other’s assumption and he intervened.

“I was going to wake you two up-,”

“Sure you were,” Roman rolled his eyes and Logan glanced over to Patton who stared at the both of them helplessly. 

Logan’s eyes stuck on Patton for a second before he straightened himself up, looking back at Roman. 

“Thomas hadn’t completed his homework assignment until 4 this morning. The lackluster sleep he got last night has been causing an unsatisfactory day’s navigation.” Logan explained and Roman opened his mouth only for Patton to finally speak up from behind them. 

“The console didn’t unlock until he was done with it?” Patton’s eyes bore into Logan and Logan’s voice left him for a moment.

“not- not exactly.” Logan began and Roman threw his hands up in the air, walking over to Patton who was looking at Logan with an unbreakable gaze.

“We needed it done and he had already started-,”

“We had already decided we were going to do it on the bus!” Roman said gesturing to the monitor, whose picture was blinking in and out from Thomas’s exhaustion. Logan’s lips pressed together, the corners of his mouth tilting down.

“I didn’t. I said we should have split it up for the week, each page only takes about half an hour and-,” Roman pointed at him,

“Well, If you listened you’d find that Thomas cares more about his friends than math class!” Logan’s eyebrows shot up as Roman continued “He doesn’t want to do-,”

“Okay!” Patton yelled over the top of them, slotting between where Roman was starting to stomp over to Logan. “So-, Thomas didn’t do the work on the bus-,”

“It wouldn’t have been possible to get any of that done in a single bus rides time-,” Logan began only for Patton to talk even louder.

“He’s tired! I think we all are too, so let’s just get this day done and get ready to lay-in this weekend okay!”

“Thomas has a history project due Monday we should-,” Logan began only for Roman to start talking over him again.

“Why don’t you listen to Patton huh-,”

“Whoa! Hey now, we are all just a little stressed out-,”

“No we’re not! Stop speaking for-” Roman yelled, turning to look at Patton and freezing at the other’s hurt expression.

Logan frowned. 

“Kiddo.” Patton said, eyes wide voice barely a whisper.

“I- I didn’t-,” Roman began and Logan stood. 

Roman was yelling because Logan had agrviated him, Patton was hurt from Roman’s yelling, therefore, Logan taking his leave should be a solution where Patton and Roman can work out the situation.

Logan didn’t know why his abdomen felt so... heavy.

The sound of footsteps made Roman and Patton turn away from each other, both of them thrown to see Logan gone.

“Lo- Logan!” Patton called after him, only to be answered by the sound of Roman grumbling behind him. Patton turned back around to see Roman rubbing the back of his neck.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you Patton…” Roman said and Patton smiled at the other as Roman sank out.

Patton watched the other go, an empty feeling sinking in agan. He turned around, quickly heading down the hallway and stopping just outside the dark blue door of Logan’s room. 

Patton reached out for the doorknob, his hand went to twist automatically before he froze. Taking a deep breath he reached his other hand up and knocked.

“Logan?” He called out only for no response to be given. The sound of shuffling in the room the only sign that Logan was inside. 

Patton paused, listening, his hand slowly sliding off the doorknob and down the door.

“Roman’s just having a tough time,” Patton spoke loudly, trying to talk beyond the door, his hand pulling back to hover over the doorknob, “We all are, this whole puberty thing- It’s changing some stuff and we all just need to adjust okay.”

Patton’s paused a second more, both his hands slowly pulling back to his sides as he disconnected with the other’s door. He stood, staring at nothing. More shuffling filled his ears before he turned, and started walking down the hall to his own room.

Behind his door, Logan was slumped in his office chair, eyes ghosting over the doorknob that had jiggled once where Patton had touched it. 

His hulking shelves loomed over him, as his eyes locked with the paper of Thomas’s schedule on his desk.

**Locked**

Virgil was pacing, from one wall of his room to the other, straight across and in front of his bed. His shadow moved with him, arching across the floor as one particular voice got louder.

Virgil had listened in as Logan tried to get Thomas to do his history project earlier that weekend. He had also listened to every time Roman chimed in, groaning loudly before convincing Thomas to do something else. 

It was Sunday night, Thomas was asleep, and the loudest voice in his room was exclusively talking about the project.

In.

Out.

...in

Out.

Virgil tried to keep to his breathing exercise, but every exhale clipped and every inhale sucked in faster than intended. 

He felt like he was suffocating.

Suffocating.

HE WAS SUFFOCATING.

Virgil was sucking in air as he burst out of his bedroom, his breath coming in heaves as he collapsed behind the couch that was a few feet in front of his bedroom door. His arms shook, eyes brimming with tears.

He didn’t know if it was real or not, he didn’t know what really was real sometimes but he thought he heard the whispers of the others coming from the door at the back of the room. Shadow’s may or may not have danced under the door, but all Virgil could think about was Thomas.

Thomas was going to be in so much trouble.

That project was so many points. 

His grade.

His future.

Virgil ran up the stair steps to the other door, his head almost bounced off the wood as he slammed his ear up against it to listen to the other side. 

His hands shook, mind only registering that it was quiet, as he pulled at the lock and collapsed in the hallway there.

His breathing was still off, maybe even worse. 

4-7-8

Breathe in- Breathe!

The darkness seeped into the room, his shadow coating the floor and spreading as he crawled his way to the console room. 

Virgil felt a buzz in his throat as his head spun. He went for the bottom of the console. His hand rose, fingers scratching at the edge of the cover before seeing the screws there. 

His breathing was coming out in puffs as he shivered, everything felt like too much- it needed to stop!

He braced himself on the console, a hand touching the top only for all the colours there to fade to a black. Everything going quiet for a moment before it sparked. The entire console electrified for a moment before suddenly everything was live.

Virgil watched numbly as Thomas got up with a groan. Squinting in the dark before he reached to pull the covers of his bed up.

The sound of footsteps made Virgil flinch, pulling him back to the present.

He turned, taking three steps before freezing. The shadows of the others moving down the hallway.

Virgil spun eyes locking with the maintenance closet before he ran over, opening it and shutting the door behind him. He held onto the handle, the muscles in his arms twitching as he stood there in the darkness. His breath coming out shallow as he felt the walls press into himself.

The quiet whispering of the other sides made him freeze, breath hitching as he held it momentarily. One of his hands dislodged from the door handle before shooting to cover his mouth and quiet his rapid breathing. 

“-again!” Roman said a loud thumping noise making Virgil jump before someone whispered something too quiet for him to hear.

“-Well.” Logan stated and Virgil screwed his eyes shut as he saw the shadow of someone walking in front of the maintenance closet.

“It seems that once again we’re not going to have control back until Thomas calms down-,” Logan stated and Virgil felt his stomach turn at the idea of the project only being half finished. He couldn’t handle this again tonight! 

He was so tired.

He just needed to breathe.

“Are you going to just do whatever again,” Roman said, voice hard and there was a beat of silence before Logan spoke again.

“Well, I am definitely needed for this project but-” Logan sped up at the end to beat someone else from interrupting him, “But. You are also needed for the aesthetics of the poster board so, if you are concerned about my… conduct-,”

“You. need me.” Roman said and there was another pause before Logan uttered a simple “Yes.” in return.

“You need me, to help with Thomas’s homework?” Roman’s voice was incredulous at best and Logan cleared his throat.

“The project could require a… creative eye with-,”

“You’ve never asked me to help on projects before-,”

“I know you dislike homework-,”

“I dislike- Ugh! you having all the say, is what I dislike! I could have been helping-,” 

“Guys!” Suddenly Patton’s voice shouted over the other two, making Virgil flinch again from his- small, hiding spot. Virgil pealed his hand off his mouth to reach out and touch one of the walls next to himself. 

It’s right there, it hasn’t gotten any- any closer to him.

Virgil breathed.

Walls can’t move by themselves.

“-and you can work together on this one! Won't that be fun!” Virgil tuned back in to hear the last of the conversation and as grumbling was heard, Virgil heard footsteps and then silence. 

His hand shook as he slowly turned the knob there peaking out only to almost have another heart attack.

Through the crack in the door he could see-, see them, quietly standing there.

Which meant they could see him if they tried. 

He froze, not wanting to make any other sound with the door in case it creaked or squeaked if moved further. His eyes were glued to the two figures, one standing one sitting. He stood there head spinning.

The one decked in an obnoxious amount of red, Virgil's assuming that’s Roman, was staring at Logan, who frankly looked just like he sounded, as Logan went to press a button on the console in front of them.

The console that was stained with inky black spreads all over. Virgil swallowed hard as he saw the black area’s spark.

“So.” Roman started, gesturing to the console “You get the information and just leave the arrangments of it to me okay. I don’t want you to, like, take over the project alright.” Roman said, rubbing the back of his neck and Logan glanced over to the other.

“That sounds admissable,” Logan nodded and Roman’s eyes squinted at him.

“Was that an insult because-,”

“Admissable means acceptable .” Logan cut in and Roman tilted his head.

“Huh… learn something new every day..”

Logan rolled his chair closer to his side of the console, looking to see Roman standing by his own side, his foot rolling his chair around. Logan looked down at his buttons, swallowing to see the stains of black jamming some of them.

“What’s with that?”

Logan looked up at Roman as he gestured to the buttons. Logan raised an eyebrow at the other and Roman sighed dramatically.

“I’m not dumb! Okay- I saw how you and Patton were whispering when I walked in. what’s up with the colour change? That’s never happened to the console before.”

Logan stared at Roman, a hand pressing one of his up and running buttons, as he slowly turned facing the console again.

“Actually, yes. It has happened before.” 

Roman’s eye’s widened at that, and Virgil felt his heart stop in his chest. 

It’s happened before?

“Whoa- really?” Logan nodded, and Roman let himself fall into his chair. “So like, the entire board turned black or just sections of it?” 

“It’s never turned this colour before- but it has turned other colours.” Logan was glancing at the monitor, to the console in front of himself as he pressed buttons on his board, “Before Patton had gotten his side of the board the entire thing lit up yellow and before you even showed up, the entire console was green.”

In the Matanence closet, Virgil held back a cough as he choked on air. 

Yellow?

Green?

“Really! What- I don’t remember that though!” Roman said leaning forward, an eyebrow raised, and Logan nodded.

“Ehm. yes, well Patton could corroborate that story, at the time he was so worried about Thomas’s- welll,” Logan cringed a little, his hands folding into his lap as he looked up at the screen in front of himself. “Hear- Patton.” Logan cleared his throat after tripping himself up before continuing, “Patton used too- he always worried about morally inclined things even before he knew his purpose.”

Roman looked at Logan’s almost soft expression with wide eyes. His mouth opening and closing despite no sound coming out.

“Erm, uh-,”

“Done.” Logan stated, standing and turning back to Roman who floundered for a moment before straightening up, “Thomas has all the information on his historical figure that he needs, you just need to arrange them on the board- there are guidelines on how the teacher wants-,”

Roman cleared his throat, eyeing Logan up and down again, “Yeah yeah yeah- Just leave it to the master okay pocket protector!” Roman ushered Logan out of the console room before turning back to the monitor. “Wow that was getting awkward,” Roman said to himself before looking at the blank poster board. “Time to work my magic!” 

Virgil bit his lip, tasting blood as he watched Roman ‘take the reins’ and Logan walk out of the room while he did it.

Roman got out colourfull cardstock paper and was printing what Logan had written up. Which was fine but Virgil’s heart was racing in his chest at the fact that Roman was putting things in the wrong places. 

The glue went on the back of one paper and Virgil couldn’t stop his own hand from jerking away from the doorknob and reaching out to Roman in desperation. 

Suddenly the other froze, eyes wide and scared as he jerked back from his side of the console. 

“What-,” His voice cracked eyes darting around the room.

Roman’s breath came out too fast as he braced himself. Slowly his breath came back to himself and his arm shakily reached out and pushed one of his buttons. 

Thomas looked down at the directions for the project. Roman’s eyes scanned the requirements there before looking around the room again. His shoulders were tense and his eyes shifted with unease. 

Virgil was still tucked into his dark corner, hand covering his mouth as his wide eyes stared off blankly.

**Locked**

Roman stuck his tongue out in concentration as he watched Thomas gently put the coloured paper down as a frame for the ‘main points’ section. 

Green and blue, a good combination for Marie Curie, she was a scientist and those are very science-y colours.

He watched as Thomas put the last page down and then added the last needed touch of glitter glue. It was just around the rim of the information but glitter is always a good go-to if you ever need an extra something to, well, anything.

The sound of a door opening and closing had Roman’s head twisting around so fast he almost gave himself whiplash. Roman jumped out of his chair, turning as the sound finished echoing down the hallway. 

Roman nearly tripped over his own chair as he started running to see the door, only to see that It was the same as always.

Seemingly undisturbed.

Roman’s hands went up to pull at his hair as he stared at the door.

“Logan! Patton!” Roman yelled, and both of them popped up in their pajama’s confused and tired. 

“What? Did something happen with the project-,” Logan began and Roman had to shove down exasperation, of course that’s the only thing Logan focuses on.

“The door! It just-” Roman gestured with his hands to the door. He turned to see Logan raising an eyebrow at him as Patton just stared at him, wide-eyed.

Roman stopped, watching Patton who just stared, tightly smiling at him. Patton glanced away from Roman’s eye contact to look at Logan. 

“Roman, the door hasn’t opened, we’re all sleep deprived again and since this keeps happening-,” Logan began and Roman’s eye’s narrowed.

“I’m not tired at all! Honestly!” Roman began, his voice starting higher than normal before tapering back down. “I think I work better under the pressure,” Roman said gesturing to the monitor behind him.

“Well, you might feel like-,”

“I’m. not. crazy!” Roman yelled, glaring Logan down, and Logan was taken aback by his outburst.

Roman’s eyes flickered to Patton before sticking as he saw Patton staring at the door with wide, cautious eyes.

“You believe me!” Roman said, his voice almost an accusation as Patton’s eyes suddenly snapped all over the room. Roman frowned. 

“You believe me but you won’t defend me.”

Patton gave a choked noise and slowly his hands rose up in a placating manner.

“I think we’re all just grumpy since-,”

“No! We’re not! Patton-,” Roman sighed watching as Patton snapped his mouth closed.

“You’re not always the one that’s right here,” Roman said turning back to face Logan, “and I’ll prove to you, it opened! You’ll see for yourself-,”

“Roman enough,” Logan said, a hand rising to rub at his forehead. His head ached, and the sound of Roman yelling didn’t help. He looked up to see Roman’s face darken a shade of red, his jaw clenching before he stomped away, a door slamming from somewhere in the Mind-scape. 

Patton gave Logan a tight-lipped smile, taking a step back, then another, before slowly turning around following after Roman.

Logan should have never expected a good end to the day.

From behind the wood of the hallway-door, Virgil’s face had paled in horror.


End file.
